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Our Town

City of Charles Town, West Virginia

Charles Town, West Virginia

$50,000

2014

The NEA grant will support cultural district planning and a community outreach campaign for the Washington Heritage Arts & Culture District in Downtown Charles Town, West Virginia. A task force comprising artists and community organizations will work with a hired cultural planning firm to map out the district boundaries, sites, and cultural assets and will develop an artistic wayfinding system. Additionally, the task force will formulate outreach for attracting area cultural businesses to the district. The plan also will evaluate how to utilize the historic, publicly owned Charles Washington Hall as a new cultural center and to bring Artomatic(@)Jefferson performance art program into the downtown area. To further activate the district, Charles Town will relocate the annual Mountain Heritage Arts & Crafts Festival from a remote location to the district and have it coincide with the Charles Town Heritage Festival. Partners in the effort include the Arts and Humanities Alliance of Jefferson County, Washington Artists' Cooperative, Old Opera House, Jefferson County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Jefferson County Historical Society, West Virginia Division of Culture and History, and Jefferson County NAACP. This project will serve the 54,000 residents of Jefferson County, as well as attract visitors from surrounding areas including Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.